SEND Offer

Special Educational Needs and Disability

What does Special Educational Needs Mean?

If your child has been identified as having special educational needs (SEN), this usually means that they are learning at a slower rate than most other children and have a lower attainment level (get lower scores) than most other children of their age.

What special educational needs does my child have?

Special educational needs normally fall into one or more the following types:

General or moderate learning difficulty

Speech, language & communication difficulty

Specific Learning difficulty (dyslexia, dyspraxia)

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (autism)

Hearing or Visual Impairment

Behavioural or emotional difficulty

Your child may have a disability that requires additional support.

What does being on the SEN Register Mean?

The Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) keeps a record of all the children on the SEN Register. Children fall into the following categories (defined by the Code of Practice):

SEN Support: children who need something additional to or different from normal teaching (an intervention) to help them to progress and in some cases catch up with other children.

Some children may also require some support from an outside agency (e.g. teacher for the deaf, special educational needs support service) in addition to an intervention

Education Health and Care Plan or School Contract: children who require a high level of support in school from a teaching assistant for a large part of the day in addition to an intervention and support from an outside agency. An Education Health and Care Plan can give parents / carers rights over how and where there child can be educated. Very few children fall into this category.

What support can I expect from the school?

To be told what difficulties your child has

To meet once a term with your child’s teacher to discuss your child’s progress, how you can support your child at home and to get your views about what your child needs. In addition, your teacher will set targets for your child to achieve over the next term

Your child should have access to an intervention such as Better Reading and Writing Partnership, Read Write Inc (Ruth Miskin Literacy), Inference Training, Talk4Number or other strategy to help them to catch up with other children

Your child’s teacher should tell you what the intervention is, how long it will last and how it fits into the weekly timetable

Your child will continue to be taught by teachers for most lessons with some support from teaching assistants during interventions

Special Educational Needs & Disability Pupil & Parent Guarantee

‘One of the key issues in making provision for children with special educational needs is ensuring that parents have confidence that professionals are genuinely seeking to provide appropriate support for their children.’ (Paragraph 19,The Lamb Inquiry into Special Educational Needs and Parental Confidence 2009)

Parents / Carers and pupils will be consulted before their child is placed on the SEN Register.

Pupils on the SEN Register will have access to an intervention strategy that meets their individual needs.

Teachers will review the progress and attainment of groups of pupils who are on the SEN Register and who have access to an intervention strategy with the SENCO once a term.

Pupil progress will be reviewed once a term and fed back to pupils and parents at Parents Evening or other meeting and through the school’s reporting process.

Referrals to local services such as Educational Psychology, Special Needs Support teaching service and Health services will be made only in consultation with parents / carers. This may take the form of a discussion and completion of a referral form.

Pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan will have a statutory annual review to which the pupil, parents / carers and relevant local services will be invited.

Parents have the right to appeal to the Local Authority if they decide not to amend an Education, Health and Care Plan following an annual review.

Teaching assistants will be deployed in such a way as to maximise effectiveness for pupils with SEN or Disability.

The views of both parents and pupils will be considered through parent and pupil representation in the review of policies that directly affect pupils with SEN or Disability (SEN, Dyslexia Friendly, Behaviour, PSHE, Healthy Schools, Anti-Bullying, Disability Equality Duty, Community Cohesion, Sex and Relationships Education, Race Equality, Gender Equality).

The contents of policies shall be made available to parents.

Dyslexia Friendly

‘Dyslexia is best described as a combination of abilities and difficulties which affect the learning process in one or more of reading, spelling and writing. Accompanying weaknesses may be identified in areas of speed of processing, short‐term memory, sequencing, auditory and/or visual perception, spoken language and motor skills. It is particularly related to mastering and using written language, which may include alphabetic, numeric and musical notations.

Some children have outstanding creative skills; others have strong oral skills. Dyslexia occurs despite normal teaching, and is independent of socio‐economic background or intelligence. It is, however, more easily detected in those with average or above average intelligence.’

As part of the Dyslexia Friendly Schools Initiative, here at Spinney Hill Primary School we recognise the strengths of pupils with dyslexia and aim to use them as pathways to learning. We recognise that pupils with dyslexia are likely to experience higher levels of stress than their peers and that this may impact on their learning and emotional well‐being.

Governors and senior managers are committed to supporting pupils with dyslexia across the curriculum. Targets aimed at developing expertise in, and understanding of, dyslexia are reflected in the school’s SEN development plan. All staff recognise compounding factors that may co‐exist with dyslexia. They are familiar with the individual learning styles of children and adopt a range of multi‐sensory teaching approaches. We have high expectations of all children and the achievement of pupils is seen as everybody’s responsibility. We also encourage partnerships with parents.

The SENCO at Spinney Hill Primary School is Bernie Ranzetta (Assistant Headteacher for Inclusion)

The Governor with responsibilty for Special Educational Needs and Disabilty at Spinney Hill Primary School is Moshin Malik.

The Family Support Worker for Spinney Hill Primary School is Leona Wallace

Please ring 0116 2737047 if you would like to make an appointment to discuss your child's needs.

Please click the download link below to download information about our school and the school offer for pupils with special educational needs or disability. You can also find this and other useful information on the Leicester local offer website: